May ix.

By the interest of a Greek, who serves the bostangí bashá as his surgeon, I was admitted in company of Mr. John Philips, an eminent merchant, into the great seraglio of Constantinople, where we passed thro two courts, that form the entry of the palace; the first of which has a small arsenal, furnished with arms and ammunition; the second has piazzas on two sides, in which the janisaries are wont to eat, and opens at the upper end into the diván. From these two courts we were permitted to walk round the full extent of the garden, on each side of the palace. They are rude and wild places, affording nothing that is entertaining, but that wherewith nature has furnished them, which is an admirable situation rising into convenient ascents, and capable of infinite improvement, if it were happily in the possession of a Christian prince. The whole plat of ground, which they call the gardens of the seraglio, is covered with cypress and other trees, thro which are cut shady walks, where kiosks are seen of various sorts; the most eminent and remarkable of which is that called the Blew kiosk, fronting the town of Scutari. This and the other called the Alaí kiosk, fronting the city of Galata, are rich and splendid pleasure houses, covered with a gilded cupola, and adorned in their several walls with Indian tiles, and stately chimneypieces of solid brass. Passing thro the extent of the seraglio towards the extreme point, that looks up the Thracian Bosphorus, you observe a Corinthian pillar consisting of white marble, of which the ignorant Turks report a fabulous and ridiculous account; but its true original is discovered by this inscription on one plane of the basis:

FORTVNAE REDVCI OB

DEVICTOS GOTHOS[85]

On the opposite plane is likewise this religious device:

ΙϹΧϹ
ΝΙΚΑ

Near this pillar we were admitted thro a gate, which opens into a green court, and that again into a garden kept in somewhat a regular order. From hence we ascend by a few steps into an apartment of the Grand Signior, where are two rich kiosks, a fish pond, a paved walk, and an open gallery. Here we were shewn the lodgings, where the unhappy princes of the empire are detained prisoners, as also the dark chambers of the ichoglans, and the door that leads into the harém of the Grand Signior. There also are shewn two or three instances of the strength and the activity of Sultan Morát; as a ponderous round stone, which with one finger he is said to have lifted by a ring fixt therein; likewise five thick and substantial sheilds, which being placed upon one another were peirced thro by a cast of his jiríd still sticking in them; also several silver pellets thrown by him with that violence, as to stick in an iron door. The above mentioned gallery is rich and splendid, adorned with various gilding of flower work, and supported with beautiful serpentine pillars. In the sides of one of the kiosks are three orbicular stones of fine porphyry, the middlemost of which is curiously polished, and thereby serves to reflect the prospect of the seraglio and adjoining city, in the nature of a looking glass. At the further end of the garden of the seraglio are the intire walls of an antient Christian church, and near to that the aviary of the Grand Signior, where I observed the hens of Grand Cairo, having blue gills and feathers curiously coloured with grey circles, and in the center of each a spot of black.

This day I retired again to Belgrade, for the advantage of its healthy air and water, and the entertainment of its shady situation. Hence on the twelfth instant I made a tour towards Domuzderé, and the shore of the Black Sea, on which we rode for some space of ground, and returned by that called Ovid’s Tower, thro a fertile tract of ground, curiously varied with corn, grass, and shady woods.